A Perfectly Imperfect Christmas Card

Do I have you toadally confused with that title? I will explain...

My Mother-In-Law, Linda, and I had a great relationship. She was more than my Mother-In-Law, she was my friend. We liked to tease each other...a lot. Whenever I would show her a project I was working on she would glare at me and tell me "you're so perfect!"  "Everything Tina does is always so perfect!" I'd say "Whatever!" and we'd  both laugh.

 About 4 years ago I decided I was going to make her a teddy bear. We had just found out that we were expecting baby #4 and I wanted to give her the teddy bear holding my first ultrasound picture as a Christmas gift. We thought that would be the perfect way to announce our pregnancy to her. The teddy bear turned out super cute! I'd say PERFECT. Until I realized that I had sewn the paws on the wrong side. Lol. I decided to leave it that way knowing she would appreciate my imperfection. Unfortunately, I was never able to give her the teddy bear. She passed away unexpectedly on Nov. 11, 2010.  

This is a picture of the bear. We named it granny bear. I will eventually give it to Echo (the daughter I was pregnant with while making it).

Okay...Now on to my imperfect card! I created this card for the Chevron challenge going on over at Top Tip Tuesday. It's my second entry for their challenge...you can find the other one here.

The images are from the following Cricut image sets...

Tree - Teresa Collins December 25th

Christmas gifts - Winter Frolic, Christmas, Disney Pooh and Friends.

I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks Vintage Photo and Barn Door.

Looks good right?

Here's the imperfection...

Yes! I am that big of an airhead! I put everything on upside down! Lol! 

When I realized I had done that I smiled, thinking of  Linda laughing. 

This one's for you Linda! I'm showcasing my imperfections =) I miss you tons! 

Thank you all for stopping by Toadally Love To Craft! I hope my imperfect card has made you smile too. 

Hugs,

            Tina

Chevron and Prima Dolls

Today's post is for a challenge at Top Tip Tuesday. The theme for the challenge is CHEVRONS. 

To be honest, when I first started seeing the chevron pattern coming up everywhere I did not like it. 

It has toadally grown on me and is now one of my favorite things! It's a great pattern to use for any occasion. Today I used it to make a pretty birthday card for a very special little girl...my niece. She is turning 11 next month. 

The Chevron paper I chose is S.E.I  Kraft Basics brand. I picked this up at Michael's. It came in a book of 24 sheets of different patterned foil papers.

I chose to use the Prima Doll Cassandra. The crown is very fitting for a birthday princess =)

I colored her and the bow for her dress with Copic Markers, fussy cut, and then cut her dress out of pretty pink paper. (here's the Copic Markers I used)

The flowers and the doily (Martha Stewart products) came from our local stamp store. I find new and exciting things every time I go in there! 

Aren't the flowers just gorgeous!?! 

The frame is from the Cricut image set Fancy Frames. I used Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo around the edges of the brown part of the frame. On the flourish part of the frame I added Star Dust Stickles to make it sparkle. 

Thank you very much for stopping by Toadally Love To Craft! Happy Crafting!

Tina

Prima Doll Halloween Card

Prima Dolls are sooooo much FUN!

I made this Prima Doll Halloween card for the monthly card contest for Stamp Cache (Palmer's local stamping/scrapbook store). 

I chose to use the Prima Doll Kate. (I buy my Prima Dolls off of Amazon.com) I printed her the size I wanted twice.  I colored one of  her with Copic markers and then cut her out by hand.   The second Kate doll I printed, I cut out the dress and used it as a pattern to draw the dress on to separate paper I used for her dress. ( I hope that makes sense!) Her hat is from the Cricut cartridge Disney-Pooh and Friends cartridge. (I measured her head and then sized the hat to what I thought would fit)

I distressed the papers by using Tim Holz Distress Inks...Vintage Photo and Rusty Hinge. 

I love this little blender tool! Its from Rangerink.com. The foam pads are Velcro so you can easily switch them out when you need to use different colors. To blend move the tool in a circular motion from the outside in. 

I used my small scissors to rough up the edges of the paper by running them up and down the sides.

To make the broom I cut paper in tiny little lines like you would if making a grass skirt...making sure not to cut to the end of the paper so it all stays together. I glued the broom part of the paper to the handle and then lightly sprayed the papers with water so I could easily roll it. Once it was all rolled up I used hot glue to close it up. 

The sentiment for the card comes from one of my favorite places...The Cutting Cafe.

It comes with the Halloween and Fall in a jar set along with several other sentiments and printable cards in a jar. 

 The spider is from the Cricut image set Doodlecharms...the web is cheese cloth. I got the idea to use cheese cloth on my crafts from You Made Me Ink. If you haven't check out her blog...DO! She is AMAZING!!! 

Hope you love her as much as I do!

Thank you for stopping by! Happy crafting!

Super cute cards from The Cutting Cafe

This week for The Cutting Cafe assignment we were able to choose between Halloween and Fall in a Jar Printable Set or Halloween and Fall Shaker Cards. All of these cards are ADORABLE! I did a couple from both sets. 

The Halloween and Fall in a Jar Printable Set is not only adorable, it couldn't be easier to make! I used sentiments that come with the set for both Jar cards.

I used a tiny punch for the stars and a white Gelly Roll pen for the white dots. 

On to the Shaker cards! This was the first time I have made shaker cards. I am toadally in love! I will definitely be making more. 

To make the eyes on this little cutie, I cut out an oval with my Explore. Then I cut it into a raindrop shape with scissors. I colored the eyes with Copic markers and did the eye lashes with a Micron pen.

I was super excited when I saw these little Jack O Lanterns at Target. I knew they'd make the perfect filling for this Pumpkin Shaker Card.

Regina has started a video series called Watch Me Work Wednesdays. The first episode shows you how to put together the Pumpkin shaker card. She did an outstanding job on the video! I not only learned how to put the Pumpkin Shaker card together, I learned a new/better way to tie a bow.

Make sure you stop by The Cutting Cafe on the 7th and 21st of every month and leave a comment on the Design Teams inspirational post so you can be entered to win 3 free sets of your choice.

Thank you for stopping by. Happy crafting! 

Spooktacutlar Halloween Decor

BEWARE!! You are about to be sucked into a long post with lots of pictures!

 Enter at your own risk =)

On Pinterest I saw some really cool bottles turned into Halloween decor. I really wanted to try to make my own so this summer I started looking for glass bottles at garage sales. I found several!  

Here is a before picture of my Spider Venom bottle

I started by finding a spiderweb image (Monster Bash Image Set) in Cricut Design Space. 

I cut it out, ran it through my Xyron sticker machine and attached it to the bottle. 

Then I put a thick layer of Liquitex Gel Medium all over it. I wanted the bottle to have a rough texture...I was able to create that buy dabbing the Gel Medium with a foam paint brush. 

Gel Medium takes forever to dry! I let it sit over night and it still wasn't dry, but it was dry enough...

I used hot glue to "draw" the spiderweb onto the bottle.

Many of you would be able to "draw" the spiderweb with out having the die cut on the jar. However, I do not trust my drawing abilities enough to do so. 

  I painted it black and then let it dry (all this drying time is driving me nuts!)

When the black paint was dry I painted it again, this time I mixed black and red paint together and dabbed it on with a foam brush. MORE drying time required! 

In between drying time I worked on the tags for my bottles. I designed the tags in Cricut Design Space and then used the new Print to Cut feature. I love this feature! I wasn't sure how much I would use it but, I have to say it works very well for the little projects. 

The font I used is Scary Halloween Font from dafont.com. They have lots of awesome fonts to chose from. 

Once my tags were cut out I distressed them by running my scissors along the edges, crumpling them up and then inking them with Tim Holtz Distress Inks. (Vintage Photo and Rusty Hinge) 

I used cheese cloth in between the red and black card stock for a spiderweb look. 

Once the Redish black paint was dry I used a paint brush to paint the spiderweb white. While waiting for that to DRY, I put red glitter glue on the back of my spiders and then hot glued them to the bottle. 

Alligator Eyes!!!

 This bottle didn't take nearly as much time to decorate.  

I used etching cream to make the bottle have a foggy look on the edges. I put a thick layer of cream on and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I scraped off the excess cream and put it back in the jar and then rinsed the bottle off. The bottle sat over night to make sure the inside was dry before I put the eyes in. I used the same distress inks as mentioned above, to distress the cork and the tag for this bottle. 

I bought the eyes at Joann's. They are actually little bouncy balls.

Whew! You made it through the entire post! 

I still have several bottles to decorate. Hopefully I can find the time to do that before Halloween! 

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have been inspired! Happy crafting!

All About Pumpkins With The Cutting Cafe

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins! 

It's inspiration time over at The Cutting Cafe. Regina, the owner has several super cute pumpkin files.

Pumpkin Trio Shaped Card

Halloween - Fall Milk Carton

3D Pumpkin

Pumpkin Shaped Card

Pumpkin Treat Box

Pumpkin Tic Tac Box Holder

Pumpkin Bread...Just for you

Huge Pumpkin Printable Stamp

and

Pumpkin Goodie Bag

I chose to use the Pumpkin Trio Shaped card and the 3D Pumpkin sets for my project this week.
Instead of using the pumpkins from the Pumpkin Trio Shaped Card for a card, I used them to make a sign for my mini pumpkin patch.
The papers I used are Recollections brand from Micheal's.
I sanded and stained the front of a dresser drawer that we had taken apart and attached the pumpkins to it with Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive.
The twine bow is attached with hot glue...to keep the twine curled I put hot glue on the parts of the twine that touched the paper. 

The flourish swirlies are from the Cricut image sets Soiree Lettering and Sweethearts. I thought  Glitter glue was the perfect addition to the leaves, stems and swirlies...well, because everything is better when it sparkles! The wood sign is from the image set Outdoor Man. I used a white Gelly Roll pen in my Cricut Explore to write Pumpkin Patch on the wood sign.

For the wood pumpkins I used 4x4's. I cut them in sizes ranging from 1.5 feet to 8 inches tall.

 I used a chisel to take the sharp corners off, sanded each chunk of wood and then spray painted them with this paint.



I put on 3 coats of Heirloom White. (letting each coat dry for 20-30 minutes before adding the next)
Once the white paint was dry I put on one coat of



and let it dry over night. (I purchased both paints at Walmart)

The stems are 2x2's cut at about 3 inches, sanded with an Oscillating drum sander for shaping and spray painted dark brown.

In the morning I sanded each 4x4 again for distressing, attached the stems with Elmer's Wood Glue and let dry.

The beautiful pumpkin leaf is from The Cutting Cafe's 3D Pumpkin Set
I cut each one at different sizes, inked and curled the edges and then attached them to the stems with green floral wire.

I attached my burlap bow with hot glue. I love the way burlap looks on EVERYTHING! It gives a nice country feel.



I love how my pumpkins turned out! Even my husband was impressed when he saw them. I had worked on them while he was out moose hunting. Usually he is close by "supervising" while I am using his tools. Not this time! Don't worry honey, I was super careful with your babies =)

 

If you'd like to be entered for a chance to win 3 free sets from The Cutting Cafe make sure to stop by and leave a comment on the Design Teams inspirational posts on the 7th and the 21st of each month. 

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Crafting!